VOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR. 69 



Kercadio faw, therefore, that the afE fiance 

 he had brought with him from France could 

 not be of long duration. That brave offi- 

 cer, wlio was free from the prejudices of his 

 ft at! on, and the harfhnefs pecuHar to his 

 profeffion^ judged it necefTai^y to endea- 

 vour to bring about a reconciUation between 

 Chamargou and La Cafe, He reprefented 

 to the former, that he could no longer coii- 

 fider as his fubaltern, a man, who, by his 

 marriage with Dian^Nong, had become not 

 only abfolute mafter of the province of Am- 

 boule, but fovercign alfo of the whole ifland 

 of Madagafcar, No madnefs, indeed, could 

 have been attended with more fatal cohfe- 

 quences to the French, than that of the 

 head of a languiChing colony obftinately 

 per fi fling to treat as a rebel, a perfon as 

 powerful as he was refpeded, and who, 

 by a fmgle word, might have occafioned 

 his deftrudioa. Defpairing that his reafon- 



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